Shinseiki no Kyojin
by Lamia of the Dark
Summary: A crossover in which the world of Shingeki no Kyojin is the future of the world in Shinseiki Evangelion. Ritsuko emerges from a titan in the year 850, and tries to make sense of the world. The Survey Corps isn't quite sure what to do with her, but they are fairly certain she holds key information about the titans.
1. From the Back of Beyond

**DISCLAIMER: Attack on Titan belongs to Hajime Isayama. Neon Genesis Evangelion belongs to Hideaki Anno.**

 **A/N: Yes, the title is just the two series' Japanese titles mashed together, because "Shingeki" and "Shinseiki" are one syllable off from each other and I like puns.**

~ Shinseiki no Kyojin ~  
(From the Back of Beyond)

A figured emerged from the back of the titan's neck. On second glance, he saw that it was a woman. Pretty. Blonde. Her clothing was in a style he'd never seen before.

She blinked, looked around.

 _Crap, she spotted me_.

She rubbed her eyes with the back of one hand and squinted in his direction.

"Shinji...?" she called out uncertainly, before collapsing.

Eren wasn't sure what to do with her.

 _Oh, well. I'll let Corporal Levi figure it out_ , he thought as he lifted the unconscious woman into his arms.

* * *

She woke up in a strange room. Unfamiliar, yes, but that isn't the only strange thing about it. She couldn't quite put her finger on what exactly about the room struck her as odd, though. Maybe it was just an aftereffect of the long, strange dream she'd had.

She was laying on a bed, crisp white sheets beneath her, covered with a blanket of rough brown cloth.

Her limbs felt heavy and she didn't quite trust herself to sit up yet. Wondering idly what caused her to be in this state of exhaustion, she continued to take stock of her surroundings.

 _Oil lamps_ , she realized suddenly. _And candles. Why are there no electric lights? What **is** this place?_

The door creaked open and two people entered the room. Shinji and-

 _No. Not Shinji_.

"This is her," not-Shinji said to the man beside him.

She noticed that their outfits were exactly the same. Some kind of uniform? Were they military? Seele? Something else entirely?

"Looks like she's awake," the man replied, stepping toward the bed. "Hey, you. What's your name?"

At first she'd thought he was another teenager, but apparently he was just short. He had an air of command about him. Probably a superior officer in whatever organization the wing-and-shield crest represented.

"Rit-" The sound got stuck in her throat, and she coughed. "Ritsuko Akagi." She coughed again, wincing at the dry feeling in her throat. "You?" she asked, hoping for - but not really expecting - an answer.

"Levi," the man answered.

She noticed he neglected to mention his last name.

"I'm Eren Jaeger," the boy piped up.

"Ritsuko," Levi repeated slowly. "Where are you from?"

She was about to say _Tokyo_ , but the insignia on the man's jacket caught her eye again and she thought, _That's probably not what he means_.

"NERV," she answered.

"Where's that?" Levi inquired, frowning.

He had never heard of NERV? Odd. How far away from home _was_ she?

"Our headquarters is in Tokyo."

"Tokyo...?" Levi repeated, nonplussed. "Where is that?"

 _What, he doesn't even know basic geography?_ Out loud, she said only, "Japan."

Levi's brow furrowed further. The boy - Eren - looked equally as confused.

Saliva pooled in Ritsuko's mouth and she swallowed. Talking felt a bit easier now.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a few questions, as well," she said.

* * *

Letting her ask wouldn't hurt anything, Levi figured. He didn't have to answer even if he let her ask questions, and maybe he would get some actual information out of her this way.

"Go ahead," he said.

Her first question was "Where am I?"

"Slightly outside of Wall Maria, a technically unnamed castle whose official designation is Survey Corps Outpost Number Seven." Belatedly he added, "In the infirmary." She had probably already realized that the room was an infirmary, but he figured full disclosure was the best answer for now.

The woman took a moment to digest this information, before saying, "What _city_? What country?"

What did she mean, _what city_? There was _only one_ city in existence anymore. Unless you counted the titan shifter colony, wherever that was. Did that mean she was from there? Was there more than one of them?

Levi glanced at Eren beside him. The boy had a look of deep concentration on his face and seemed to have tuned out the current conversation entirely.

* * *

When the man hesitated over her follow-up questions, Ritsuko wasn't sure whether it was because he didn't want to give her the information or because he was actually confused by them.

"Nevermind. That's not important right now," she said. "I suppose I should I ask what you plan to do with me, and if I could possibly have something to eat, or at least some water, but before we get into matters of my possible continued survival, there is one more thing I'd really like to know."

She paused, and Levi nodded, signalling her to continue.

"What year is it?"

"850."

"Eight... fifty?" she said slowly, brows furrowed. "850 what?"

"What?" Levi repeated, nonplussed.

"850 _what_? What are you _counting_ from?"

"I don't know, the beginning of history?"

The uncertainty of his answer disturbed her.

 _Eight hundred and fifty years... since the Third Impact? Or since the Human Instrumentality Project was successful?_

And for the first time since she woke up, she realized that more was wrong here than she had first thought. If either of those things had happened, and if so much time had passed, how was she even alive right now?

~to be continued~


	2. Dream of a Distant Reality

~ Shinseiki no Kyojin ~  
(Dream of a Distant Reality)

Ritsuko was alone with her thoughts once more. They had left her with promises that she would be brought food and water shortly, and she was safe for now. Although Levi had said nothing about arranging a proper interrogation, she was certain they would want to question her more later. The "Survey Corps" to which the short man apparently belonged was obviously some sort of military organization.

She had also been advised that attempting to escape or transform was highly inadvisable. She wasn't sure what he'd meant by _transform_ , and added that to her mental list of things about her current situation which made no fucking sense. Unsurprisingly, that list was growing longer by the minute. She would have been tempted to think that this was a dream, if she had not been so sure that she had just woken up _from_ a dream. And what a long, strange dream it had been... Although now, she could not for the life of her recall what exactly the dream had been about.

* * *

When they left the infirmary, Eren was still so deep in thought that Levi practically had to drag the kid along to get him to move.

"Japan!" Eren blurted out suddenly, and Levi stopped walking to turn and look at him. "That's the place Mikasa's ancestors were from! I knew that name sounded familiar!" His enthusiasm died as quickly as it had been born, leaving confusion in its wake. "But if this Ritsuko person is _from_ there, then how did she end up _here_?"

Levi turned away and started walking again, and Eren hurried to catch up to him.

"I doubt that the answer to that question is particularly relevant at the moment," Levi said. "She could be lying. And even if she isn't, obviously she crossed the distance between wherever she came from and here in titan form."

"Then if we find out how long she was wandering around as titan-" Eren started, only to have Levi talk over him as if he hadn't spoken.

"The more important question is what her titan powers are, and if she'll be targeted by _that group_ as well if they manage to find out about her existence."

"But-"

"You can stop following me, by the way. Unless joining myself and Hanji for tea is your idea of a good time."

Eager as he was to uncover more information about the mysterious stranger, Eren was not particularly keen on spending time in Hanji's company when it was not strictly required of him.

* * *

The bumbling girl and surly boy who came to deliver Ritsuko's meal didn't seem like they would be a good source of information. They were both dressed in the same uniform as her previous visitors had been, and although there was no readily apparent way to distinguish ranks among them, the scientist thought it was reasonable to assume that being assigned menial tasks indicated a lack of seniority.

The newcomers were both teenagers - probably closer to Shinji's age than adulthood, if she had to guess.

The girl started to introduce herself but tripped and nearly spilled the tray as she was doing it. It was thanks to the boy's quick reflexes that neither the food nor the girl actually fell to the floor.

"Damn it, Potato Girl, can't you even do two things at once!"

"What did you just say to me, you stupid horse?"

"Don't call me a horse, Potato Girl!"

"ARGH! Why won't everyone just forget about that already!"

Ritsuko sighed as the pair exited the room, still bickering. She probably could have gotten some information of them fairly easily - concerning the general state of the world, anyway - but she would very much prefer to converse with someone who was not an utter idiot.

Now that they were gone, Ritsuko turned her attention to the food. There was a cup of water, a small loaf of hard-crusted bread, and a shallow bowl containing a thin gruel with a few chunks of vegetables in it - which could hardly be qualified as soup.

 _I wonder... is this prison rations, or just what people normally eat here?_

There was so much about this place that she just didn't _know_ , and the lack of knowledge set her on edge. How was she supposed to figure out what to do in this situation, when she wasn't even sure how to figure out _how to figure out_ what the situation _was_?

* * *

"So, you're saying... you think she was wandering around as a titan for _eight hundred_ years?" Hanji asked incredulously.

"Eight hundred and fifty. Or more," Levi clarified.

A manic gleam appeared in Hanji's eyes as she gripped Levi's hands in hers and said, "When do I get to talk to her?"

~to be continued~


	3. Songbird

~ Shinseiki no Kyojin ~  
(Songbird)

As she spooned the watery soup into her mouth, Ritsuko contemplated getting up and exploring the small stone room in which she was being kept (as either a guest or a prisoner - she was still not quite sure which), and perhaps even looking out the window to take stock of the wider world out there... but once she finished her meal, exhaustion settled heavy in her limbs, and it seemed that no matter what her mind wanted, her body found the idea of seeking information infinitely less preferable than going back to sleep.

* * *

Levi sighed.

"Calm down, Shitty Glasses. We don't need you scaring the prisoner." The manic gleam in Hanji's eyes did not begin to fade until he added, "She doesn't seem to know anything about the titans, anyway."

Her grip loosened enough that he could have pulled his hands out from under hers if he'd wanted to, but he waited for the further few moments that it took for her to realize what she'd been doing and untangle her fingers from his of her own volition.

"But she _is_ a titan shifter," Hanij put forth slowly. "She was seen emerging from a titan."

"Were you even listening to me? I just fucking said-"

"I know, I know," she cut him off, waving a hand in the air impatiently. "You said that she doesn't _seem_ to know anything about the titans. But if she came from the point in time before humans even began to record history, and she's also a titan shifter, then she probably knows more about them than she first let on. And besides that, I'm sure anyone would be disoriented upon regaining consciousness for the first time after they spent _eight and a half centuries_ wandering around in titan form." Levi opened his mouth to say something, but Hanji just talked right over him - as if she either didn't notice his attempt to speak or didn't care what he had to say. "And, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but _you suck_ at making casual conversation. Just let me talk to her, and I'll have her singing in no time."

Levi sighed again. He really didn't think that turning Hanji loose on the prisoner was likely to yield the results he wanted, but keeping Hanji away from the woman for much longer wasn't a realistic expectation, either.

"Alright," he said finally. "But give her the rest of the day to recover a bit. We probably want her to survive your interrogation."

"Oh, come on, you're making sound like I'm going to torture her or something..." Hanji paused and looked at him thoughtfully. "Do you _want_ me to torture her?"

"What? No!"

* * *

Ritsuko woke up gasping for breath, one hand clenched in the sweat-soaked fabric of her shirt's neckline. Once she became aware of it, she released her grip on the damp cloth. She rubbed her eyes and was mildly concerned to find her lashes were wet with tears. A feeling of fear lingered, but the contents of her nightmare had already faded from the forefront of her mind and she couldn't for the life of her recall what had terrified her in her dream.

Her racing heartbeat had nearly settled back down into its regular rhythm when the door to her room was unceremoniously slammed open, startling her.

"Eek! We're sorry!" squeaked a small, timid blond boy who was half-hiding behind the taller girl who had opened the door.

Apparently oblivious to the social discomfort of everyone else, the girl entered the room and dropped an armload of cloth onto the bed at Ritsuko's feet.

"The idiots who brought your food somehow forgot to bring the clean clothes."

Despite the obvious difference in their looks, this girl reminded her of Rei in an unsettling way.

* * *

Armin wanted to tell Mikasa not to be so rude, but if he really thought about it, his friend's attitude wasn't technically _wrong_. They had been told to regard the mysterious Ms. Ritsuko Akagi as a prisoner until it could be determined whether she would be an ally or a threat to the Survey Corps.

"You're permitted to leave your room to use the toilet, which is at the end of the hallway. There's a washcloth, towel, and soap here with your clothes if you want to clean yourself up," Mikasa explained, glancing at the woman to gauge her reaction.

Ritsuko cleared her throat, and said, "I don't really understand what's going on here, but am I to assume I'm being kept prisoner?"

"Yes," Mikasa answered flatly. "Don't try to run; you won't like the result if you do."

~to be continued~


	4. Wake Up, Shine Bright

~ Shinseiki no Kyojin ~  
(Wake Up, Shine Bright)

After the kids left, Ritsuko got up from the bed and went to see what kind of clothing she'd been given. She frowned at the sight of the long, dark brown skirt and threadbare off-white blouse - both of which obviously had belonged to someone else before being given to her, and looked as though they had seen better days. The undergarments seemed to be in much better condition - the clean, stark white of the fabric leading her to believe that they had most likely not been previously worn by anyone. However, they were nothing like what she was used to. There was a half-slip which was slightly shorter than the skirt they'd given her to wear over it, an honest-to-God _motherfucking_ corset, and a thin camisole which was obviously meant to be worn under the corset.

She hadn't been given any shoes, but a cursory glance around the room revealed her own high heels tucked away neatly beside the... cabinet... thing.

 _Why do I feel like an idiot for not knowing the name of some antique piece of furniture that I've never needed to identify before?_

She turned her attention back to the items laid out at the foot of the bed. The bar of soap, washcloth, and towel seemed normal enough.

Ritsuko sighed.

 _Well, I suppose I can just keep my own underwear on. Although they're probably gross... I did sleep in them... Hmm. Either way, I do want to get cleaned up_.

Ritsuko gathered up the clothes and bathing supplies and strode over to the door. Her determination failed her for a moment, as her hand hovered awkwardly over the door handle, but then she reminded herself that she had been given explicit permission to leave the room for the purpose of using the bathroom and she was not doing anything wrong.

Upon exiting the room, she found herself in a wide stone hallway, lined with several doors on each side along its length. At one end of the hall there was a staircase, in front of which two guards were stationed. She was surprised to see that one of them was someone she recognized - the tall boy from earlier who she only knew by the unfortunate nickname of 'horse'. The other was a short boy with a shaved head who Ritsuko hadn't seen before. The two of them didn't seem overly concerned about their prisoner possibly escaping, as they were sitting on the floor in front of the stairs playing cards with each other.

At the other end of the hall was a door labeled 'Shit & Piss in here, idiots' which was apparently the bathroom. She supposed the sign was someone's idea of humor.

Ritsuko made her way to the bathroom and shut herself inside. There was neither a shower nor a bathtub in the room (not that she'd really been expecting one), just a toilet, sink, and cabinet with no doors that held a meager stock of toilet paper rolls.

After setting her clothes and bathing supplies down on top of the cabinet, she tested the taps on the sink. The water worked, and what was more, the left knob brought forth a spurt of a _hot_ water.

She'd thought running water might be too much to hope for in this backwards place, wherever in the world it was, but to actually have hot running water... maybe this place wasn't as technologically lacking as it seemed. Besides, hadn't that Levi guy told her that they were at some military outpost that was outside of any proper city? Although honestly, if she thought about it, the building she was in seemed more like a damn medieval castle than some kind of... hunting lodge, or whatever. She wasn't sure what else to compare it to.

But now was not really the time to be figuring out the state of the world around her. Even if she wouldn't be able to bathe properly, she could still wash herself off, and at least she wouldn't have to do it with cold water.

She started by washing her face, splashing perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. As the warm droplets slipped down her neck, her nightmare suddenly came back to her in full clarity.

 _"It's okay, Shinji," she said as she dropped to her knees and gathered the distraught teenager into her arms._

 _She held him close, rubbing his back and petting his hair, much in the same way as a parent would soothe their child. He sobbed and clung to her._

 _She cringed internally at the the thought that he'd been so starved for affection for most of his life that he was readily willing to accept it from **anyone**... even her. She had never felt more like a villain than in this moment. Was she really going to do this to him?_

 _"Shinji..." Ritsuko said his name slowly. "It's okay. You have a choice. You don't have to do this if you don't want to. It's alright. No one is forcing you."_

 _She felt him relax into her embrace, his tension easing more with every lie she spoke._

 _"I don't want to," he whispered._

 _"That's fine. We'll test it on Asuka first."_

She'd manipulated an emotionally damaged _child_ into allowing himself to be injected with Angel cells - by threatening someone he cared about, under the pretense that she was protecting him by giving him the choice to turn down being involved in the experiment.

She didn't remember what happened after that, and she wasn't sure she wanted to. Shinji was probably dead. Everyone she'd known was probably dead. Because of her.

It was her research that had led to the 'breakthrough' new way to fight the Angels.

"God, I'm a shit human being," she said out loud.

~to be continued~


	5. Undertone

**A/N: I'm assuming bras and panties exist in the SnK world, and are the norm for female undergarments (especially in the military) but there's a reason Ritsuko was given what she was given... which will be explained in this chapter. (I mean... don't worry, you'll be finding out way more about Ritsuko's underwear than you probably wanted to know...)**

 **Also, I have no clue whether indoor plumbing is actually canon for the SnK world or not, but I've seen it in other fanfics and decided to write it that way in this one for my own convenience, because describing medieval-ish water-hauling and heating practices whenever anyone needs a bath would be annoying.**

~ Shinseiki no Kyojin ~  
(Undertone)

 _But now isn't really the time to wallow in self-pity_ , Ritsuko reminded herself. _I am going to get cleaned up and change my clothes... and then, hopefully, find out what the hell is going on here_.

She hadn't really noticed this before, but now that she was getting ready to undress herself, she found it odd that she hadn't been wearing her usual lab coat. The outfit she had on was the clothes she would normally only wear while at work, and it would be unusual for her _not_ to be wearing a lab coat around NERV Headquarters for any reason.

 _Of course, that's assuming I wasn't wearing one in the first place. It might have been destroyed during... whatever happened to me before I ended up in this weird place_.

Ritsuko had a nagging suspicion that she knew the cause of her own amnesia, but she resolutely shoved that thought aside as she unzipped the front of her shirt and peeled the sweat-soaked material away from her body. Getting out of her miniskirt is a bit more of a problem, as the combination of tight leather and half-dried sweat added up to a very difficult removal process. She somehow couldn't seem to pull on it with enough force to budge the clinging fabric from her sticky skin.

"Fuck," she hissed under her breath as the hem slipped out of her grasp for the third time. _If I was wearing pantyhose, this stupid fucking thing would come off a lot easier, but no, of course this had to happen the one **God damn** time I wore thigh-highs instead_.

After letting her frustration get the better of her for a few minutes, she finally managed to get it off by hooking her thumbs under the waistband and rolling it down. It looked like some kind of weird doughnut lying on the floor after she'd taken it off, and Ritsuko found herself choking back laughter.

 _This is not a good time to succumb to hysteria_ , she mentally scolded herself, and kicked her dirty shirt over the rolled-up skirt so she would stop looking at it.

She quickly stripped off her stockings, bra, and panties, then proceeded to give her body a much needed scrub-down.

* * *

"Captain, sir!"

Levi looked up from his paperwork at the sound of Connie's slightly-panicked shout.

"What are you doing up here?" he asked, scowling. "Did something happen with the prisoner?"

"It's okay! Armin took my place," Connie answered. "And it's not that anything really happened with the prisoner-"

"Spit it out already," Levi snapped. He didn't have the patience to endure a meandering explanation.

"She asked for someone to help her get dressed."

Probably because of the corset, since that was something typically only worn by nobles from the innermost district, and wasn't particularly easy to put on even for someone who was used to wearing one. But they hadn't had any other spare female undergarments laying around, so that was what she was stuck with for now.

"So?" Levi said after a moment's pause. "Fuckin' help her. Why did you come get me for that?"

"But, sir, she requested someone _female_."

They had sent the girls to Wall Rose to acquire a proper set of clothing for the prisoner. They had only departed a few hours ago. It would take them at the very least three days to get back. Which meant that the only female person currently in residence at the castle was-

Levi suppressed a groan. If he let Hanji near Ritsuko now, there would be no stopping the mad scientist from attempting to get as much information as possible out of the prisoner. And who knew how unguarded the motor-mouthed four-eyed titan-obsessed piece of shit would be with information if she were left alone and unmonitored with her... No. He couldn't allow that.

"Fuck that," Levi said, startling Connie with the vehemence of his response. "Who cares what she asked for? She's a prisoner and she doesn't deserve any special treatment. I don't suppose any of you idiots know how to lace a corset?"

The boy just stood there blinking at his superior officer.

"I didn't think so. Well, then I guess it's a good thing that I do."

* * *

Ritsuko leaned back against the wall and sighed. She would have liked to just skip putting the corset on altogether, but the camisole and blouse she'd been given were both so thin that they didn't really conceal anything and she damn well wasn't going to walk to around with her chest on display. She had thought about putting her bra back on, but even if it hadn't been gross with sweat, it was black. Wearing that under the pitiful excuse for a shirt that they'd given her would be almost as bad as not wearing anything under it. She hadn't wanted to ask for help, but she didn't think she'd be able to put the corset on by herself.

Someone rapped sharply on the door, startling her out of her thoughts.

"Come in," she said.

She was surprised to see that the person who entered the room was Levi. But, on second thought, it made sense if they were suspicious of her motives for asking for help, especially if women usually wore these things and were expected to be able to dress themselves without assistance. She crossed her arms over her chest defensively, even though he was making a point to not quite look at her.

"You're having trouble with corset, right?" he asked, picking up the offending garment.

"How did you guess?" Ritsuko asked. The question lost some of its intended sarcastic bite due to her actual curiosity.

"It's not something most women usually wear," Levi answered.

"Then, why-"

"We didn't have anything else to give you. We don't generally keep unused spare underclothes laying around, and borrowing someone else's is disgusting and unhygienic. Turn around and put your arms out to the side."

She did as he bade and he laced her into the corset without too much trouble.

~to be continued~


End file.
